VA Pharmacy Upgrades Bring New AI Capabilities to EHRs – GovCIO Media & Research

VA Pharmacy Upgrades Bring New AI Capabilities to EHRs  GovCIO Media & Research

The agency incorporated feedback from pharmacists in tech upgrades that add AI capabilities and streamline prescription workflows. The Department of Veterans Affairs is deploying artificial intelligence-based enhancements to its pharmacy module in conjunction with the nationwide rollout of its modernized electronic health record. The new pharmacy module includes an AI transcription agent to help clinical pharmacists generate notes after speaking with a patient. This allows clinicians to focus on patient care. The system is already being deployed and should be fully operational at all current EHR sites by the end of October, VA National Pharmacist Executive Nellie Jafari told GovCIO Media & Research. Work began on the module a little more than a year ago and incorporated feedback from VA’s pharmacy community, said VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence.

“The pharmacists really thought through this … It’s hard to do because you’ve got to think through, then develop requirements, and then test. So to actually see something all the way through is hard work,” Lawrence told GovCIO Media & Research. The pharmacy team provided a list of 20 improvements to the module. Of those, the first seven were selected to enhance the module before the Michigan EHR rollout. These were then tested after Oracle developed them, and pharmacists were given a go-no-go choice on whether to use them. “It is exactly